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Norfolk SEND survey results 2023 summary

Who responded to the survey and the number of responses 

Number of responses

The survey had 1,235 responses in total: 

  • 523 parents/carers 
  • 381 children and young people 
  • 331 professionals 

Views on SEND support and services

General support 

There was satisfaction with the support and services received by their child or young person from some parents/carers. 

20% of parents/carers comments were linked to having to challenge and navigate the system to get the right provision and support for their child. 

60% of parents/carers said they meet with their child's learning place to talk about their child's needs. 

50% of parent/carers felt their views and wishes are listened to and considered. 

Find help: take a look at the Norfolk Community Directory, if you are looking for activities, groups and things to do. You can also visit our Things to do with children and young people with SEND webpage. 

Support in education 

Parents/carers

34% of parents/career felt their child's place of learning encourages and enables their child to make progress through a SEN Support plan. 

48% parents/carers felt their child's place of learning makes reasonable adjustments to include their child.  

Children and young people   

When asked what helps me learn, children and young people said that people knowing me, regular breaks and things that interest me helped them most when learning. 

91% of the children and young people said they get help to learn, but 9% said they didn't. 

Most children and young people felt their family/carers, teachers/tutors, friends and teaching support staff gave them the best support and help. 

Support for health needs  

When discussing their child's EHC Plan with professionals, 48% of parents/carers said they felt listened to. 37% felt sometimes listened to.   

Some parents/carers felt waiting and assessment times are too long, and this puts families under pressure.  

Parents/carers also thought there needs to be better support for children and young people with mental health. 

80% of children and young people said they are happy most of the time. 

88% of children and young people said that they are 'healthy for me'. 

54% of children and young people said they had been bullied and 79% said they can tell someone if they are being bullied. 

Find help: Visit Just One Norfolk website to find information, advice and guidance on health issues including emotional health. 

Support for independence  

65% of children and young people know how to stay safe online. 

57% of children and young people know how to make and keep friends. 

51% of children and young people know how to use money. 

53% of parents/carers said they or their young person know how to get ready for next steps in being healthy. 

Out of the 9% of parents/carers who said that their children and young people were not in any education, training, or employment, 38% were receiving support to get back into education, training or employment. 

Find help: Visit Preparing for adult life on the SEND Local Offer for advice and guidance. The SEND Local Offer for children and young people is another helpful resource. 

Working together

46% of parents/carers said they were happy with how well educational professionals have supported them and their child. 

31% of parents/carers said they are happy with how people work together to meet their child's needs. 

20% of parents/carers said they were happy with how well social care or early help services had supported them and their child. 10% did not know. 

37.8% of parents/carers felt their child's needs had not been clearly identified. 

83% of professionals said their service or organisation work in co-production with parents/carers and/or children and young people.  

Over 40% of professionals gather feedback from parents/carers informally, valuing the importance of regular communication. Over a third gather feedback during meetings, including review meetings and events were mentioned by a small number of professionals. 

Almost 50% of professionals have improved how they communicate with children and young people and parents/carers. Almost 25% had held more face-to-face sessions or adapted sessions to meet the needs of children and young people and parents/carers. 

71% of these children and young people said they are allowed to make choices about the support they get with learning. 

Find help: All SEND professionals are welcome to attend our SEND forum for SEND professionals . You can also find SEND training for professionals .

Getting involved

74% of parents/carers said they had not given feedback on the services they use in the last 12 months. 32% said they were not confident anything changed if you did give feedback. 

Parents and carers felt communication and working together needs to improve across all sectors and services. This is about parents/carers being involved, kept informed, and being asked for their views about services and support. 

Parents/carers felt staff knowledge, skills and understanding was often a concern, and it was highlighted that professionals needs more training in meeting the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). 

156 parents/carers said they would like to be actively involved in helping the Norfolk local area to improve SEND services and will be contacted this autumn. 

Find help: Parents/carer feedback is very important and welcomed. There are several ways you can give feedback including Family Voice Norfolk parent carer forum , online Making Sense of SEND events  or by completing one of our SEND online feedback forms . 

Professionals    83% of professionals said either themselves or their organisation work in co-production with parents/carers and/or children and young people. 

Over 40% of professionals gather feedback from parents/carers informally, valuing the importance of regular communication. Over a third gather feedback during meetings, including review meetings and events were mentioned by a small number of professionals. 

51% said they use feedback to make changes within their service or organisation. 

Almost 50% have improved how they communicate with children and young people and parent/carers. Almost 25% had held more face-to-face sessions or adapted sessions to meet the needs of children and young people and parent/carers. 

Most children and young people said they liked to share their views by talking (73%). A few said they liked to use technology or a trusted person to give their views. 

Just over 60% of children and young people felt that people listened to them. However, 29% said they were listened to sometimes, but 11% felt no one listened to them.  

Find help: Planning SEND services together 

Views on education, health and care plans

Parents/carers   

59% of parents/carers who responded to the survey had a child with an education, health and care (EHC) plan.  

50.8% of parents/carers said their child's EHC plan made a positive difference to their lives. They said: 

  • Everyone is clear about my child's needs (63%) 
  • My child is making good progress (57%) 
  • My child has the support described in their plan (56%) 
  • My child is happier in their learning (49%) 
  • Their needs are now being met (47%) 

Only 18% of parents/carers said they found it easy to contact the EHC plan team via the telephone number. 36% of parents/carers were unaware of the number. 16% of parents/carers said the number was not easy to use. 30% of parents/carers were not using the number. 

Over 45% of parents/carers mentioned issues with the service received from the EHCP team - these were often linked to a lack of communication. 

Other parents/carers do not feel involved in the EHCP process and are frustrated that the whole process takes so long and is a challenge. 

Provision was mentioned 40% of the time by parents/carers; a lack of appropriate provision, child being in the wrong provision, provision not meeting needs or a fight to get the right provision. 

Find help: Find information and guidance on the EHC plan process including timelines and how to contact the EHC plan team. You can also give specific feedback online on EHC plans. 

SEND professionals 

50% of the professionals who completed the survey had made a request for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment. 

Of those who had requested an EHC needs assessment; 91% had actively considered how the child's needs could be met without an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. 

Various reasons for making a request for an EHC needs assessment were given, but the most common reason was unable to meet need at SEN Support. 

Find help: All SEND professionals are welcome to attend our SEND forum for SEND professionals. You can also find SEND training for professionals. 

Views on communication

Parent/carers   

29% of parents/carers said they were happy with the level of communication they receive from people supporting them. 

Most parents/carers receive information online. Places of learning are also a key source of information. 

34% of parents/carers said the information they receive is easy to understand.  

The online resources parents/carers use most are: 

Parents/carers prefer to give feedback via surveys, email/text and face to face. 

Find help: Find SEND support Facebook groups and pagesthat might be useful. Parents/carers can also provide feedback on services via our online forms. Our guide to SEND terms is useful to reference.

We have also produced guidance on writing information that is clear and easy to understand that we encourage all SEND services to follow.  

SEND professionals 

The information resources that professionals know about and use when working with children and young people with SEND included: 

The six other resources that were most known about and used were:

Provision Expected at SEN Support (PEaSS) guidance, the eCourier and training were the resources that were known and used in equal measure by professionals. 

Find help: Sign up to SEND newsletters. 

Children and young people   

Children and young people said they were most likely to speak to family and carers if they needed information to help them. They also selected the following options: 

  • 78% said family and carers 
  • 68% said teachers/tutors 
  • 60% said friends 
  • 57% said teaching assistants 
  • 53% said websites

55% of children and young people said they were happy with the help they received.

Norfolk SEND survey 2023 reports

Click on the links below to view reports for the SEND survey 2023:

SEND survey 2023 children and young people report (PDF) [303KB] 

SEND survey 2023 parent/carer report (PDF) [349KB] 

SEND survey 2023 professionals report (PDF) [331KB]